


in shared ghosts, peace

by birdhymns



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, they got such good sib vibes y'know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-02 14:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20277553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdhymns/pseuds/birdhymns
Summary: They found a bit of home in each other.





	in shared ghosts, peace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CourierNinetyTwo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/gifts).

  
“They’re calling you Wisdom now.”  
  
Lysithea looks up from the latest round of proposals to find that Edelgard’s somehow managed to enter the room unheard, a plate with a generous pile of butter cookies in one hand, a teacup and saucer in the other . A rare crownless day, since no one else is expecting them today. Lysithea’s gaze is immediately drawn to the plate, mind focused on the tantalising scent. “Who’s calling me what now?”  
  
There’s a faint smile on Edelgard’s face as she sets the plate down, then moves to sit across from Lysithea. “The ‘Wisdom of the Empire’, for all your work on reform. I imagine Dorothea will have quite a day working that into the opera.”  
  
“Huh. Well.” She lifts her chin slightly, smile curling her lips. “It’s a nice bit of recognition.” She chews, thoughts flowing down at a lazy, steady pace. “Never thought I’d get a title like that.”  
  
Edelgard’s comprehension, as ever, is quick to follow. “Because you thought you’d be long dead.”  
  
“That and from passing Ordelia’s lands to someone else. A quiet life was what I envisioned for myself.”  
  
“And here I am, having dragged you into all this.”  
  
“You say dragged, but if you recall, I came pretty willingly once I figured you out, you know.”  
  
“True enough.” She takes another sip of tea.  
  
Lysithea finishes another cookie as she does, before asking something that’s long drifted through her mind, though it had never been the right time before now. “Why were you being so coy about knowing anyway? Like, you knew pretty quickly about me. Why’d you deny it until I said it outright?”  
  
A brow rises by itself a moment. “Would me talking about my ghosts have been so exciting for you? I knew you veered from graveyards.” There’s a teasing lilt to it.  
  
Lysithea is in no mood for jokes, though, expression flat—learnt from Byleth. “Edelgard…”  
  
She sighs, sets her teacup aside with a gentle clink, and looks at Lysithea fully. “Because I was not sure initially if all I’d heard was true. Certainly I suspected as we spent more time together, but I wasn’t certain. The resources necessary to, study another family the way mine was, must have been difficult to acquire. And to query without prompting would’ve also shown… my own history.”  
  
“Fine speech and all good reasons, but that’s not the core.” Lysithea maintains her stare.  
  
Edelgard sighs again after a few beats, it clear to her that Lysithea won’t be swayed, and the chair creaks quiet as she shifts her weight back. Her words come quietly. “Because I didn’t want you to feel like you had to relate to me, based on the fact we’d experienced similar things. Nor did I want to bring up something so personal to the both of us, without knowing if you wanted to discuss it first.” She takes a long breath, letting it in, out, in measured moments. “Because I could not help but see my siblings when I looked at you, and I did not want to do you a disservice by that.”  
  
Not for the first time, Lysithea is struck by Edelgard. The woman before her has been hard, has had to be for the path she’s set on, and still sometimes needs reminders to pull back and consider other options from her and Byleth. It is so easy to forget what it means, that this Emperor has known the same bone-deep ache as her, the battle of their body and magic of rejecting what's been done to them and denying that rejection. Yet right now. Right now, she looks at Lysithea and there’s a shine of vulnerability on her otherwise carefully impassive face, a worry that peeks about her usual persona of indomitability, and the old history lessons of years long gone ring dolorous in Lysithea’s ears. One of eleven, and one of the youngest.  
  
Or, Edelgard should have been. Lysithea can imagine—knows, though she won’t ask, won’t dig that much shared grief to surface—what happened to her siblings.   
  
“I understand,” she finally says, and she can see that fractional drop in Edelgard’s shoulders as she relaxes. “Must have been difficult seeing me around once the Professor invited me.”  
  
To her surprise Edelgard shakes her head after a beat. “Knowing another family was subject to the same thing, yes. But… looking out for you was good. Offering little measures of comfort when I, couldn’t for my own family.” She meets her eyes again. “It gave me solace.”  
  
Lysithea has to swallow hard. “Suppose I should’ve guessed that from how much you were doting.”  
  
To her amusement and relief, a little pink shows in Edelgard’s face, lightening the heavier turns of this conversation. She’s quick to rally herself, though. “Yes, well. You were and are a good girl, and always had a charming, youthful taste. It was, natural to keep an eye out for you.”  
  
Lysithea pouts. “’Are’? Shouldn’t it be ‘a good woman’, now?”  
  
“With that expression? Definitely good girl, still.”  
  
“Hmf!” She turns away. The cookie in her mouth sticks up into the air and ruins the general effect.  
  
There’s a soft laugh and the sound of shifting cloth and feet. Then there is an arm wrapping gently around her, hugging her, and Edelgard’s forehead pressed to the back of her head.  
  
“You’ve grown so well, and despite having so little to do with it, I’m proud.” Her arm holds a little tighter for a moment. “I’m glad you’re my wisdom, Lys. I could not have done all this without you.”  
  
Again, a lump of emotion that threatens Lysithea’s composure. She tentatively rests a hand on Edelgard’s forearm, and murmurs, “I always accept more sweets.”  
  
“I don’t doubt that.” She allows her amusement to linger in the air for a few seconds before straightening up. “Unfortunately, I have to pick your brain for more sage words now.”  
  
“I thought we didn’t have a meeting today.”  
  
“We don’t, but I’ve gotten some news from a courier, and I’d like your thoughts before we act.” She pauses. “You can keep eating your cookies.”  
  
“Ask away then.” She picks up another, bites.  
  
It’s warm and sweet.

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to the power of love for my friends making this one basically four times as long as the other fics I've done now, haha. That and the self-questioning of why Edelgard was so coy about answering really gave this one its breadth and width.


End file.
